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Secondary Profession. Allows a cook to make basic recipes up to a maximum potential skill of X. Requires meat from beasts and fire to make food.

From [Beer Basted Boar Ribs] to [Giant Clam Scorcho], there is no recipe too obscure or odd to attract notice from the chefs of Azeroth. Food is used in the game to heal players out of combat so that they are able to get back to fighting as quickly as possible.

As you are traveling around the world, you will notice that you often receive pieces of meat which, instead of being sold to merchants, could be used to create food. If you are a player who relies on food, such as a non-healing player or a player who solos, cooking will be very important to you.

You can buy food from merchants, but the food gained through cooking is nearly free and it is actually much more effective. Additionally, even if you don't eat it, cooked meat is still worth more than raw meat when resold. Cooking is also a great "flavor" secondary skill because you can entertain players with the funny and interesting dishes you can create. Hand someone a portion of [Dragonbreath Chili], a [Savory Deviate Delight], or some [Stormchops] and you'll see what we mean.

Additionally, certain cooked foods have a 15-minute, 30-minute, or 60-minute Well Fed buff effect in addition to the immediate health boost all foods have. (Know you're going in to battle and have a few minutes? Eat that [Herb Baked Egg] first and gain 2 Spirit and 2 Stamina for 15 minutes. +2 stamina equates to 20 health points and +2 spirit makes you get health and mana back quicker.) A list of recipes and the buffs they give can be found under Well Fed. In the Burning Crusade, cooking is improved for other classes as there are buffs such as increased agility, spell damage, healing, etc. A "treat" can also be given to a Hunter pet or a Warlock minion.

Your ingredients will be meat from the beasts or fish in Azeroth. Some recipes also require ingredients such as [Refreshing Spring Water], [Mild Spices], or other items which can be obtained from trade goods vendors, but as of Patch 3.1 the vast majority of recipes have been streamlined and no longer require additional ingredients.

Your heat source must be a Cooking Fire, such as a Campfire, a Stove, a Brazier, a Cauldron, or a Fireplace, but not a Forge.

In order to advance your Cooking skill, you must constantly challenge yourself to create increasingly advanced dishes. Every time you create a new food item, you have a chance of earning a Cooking skill point.

The color of the recipe in your cooking window (menu) indicates whether you will gain a skill point in Cooking when you create the item. The color codes are as follows:

Red = Cannot create yet; you need a higher skill level in Cooking before you can create this recipe.(0%)

Orange = Will always receive a Cooking skill point when you create that item, except the very highest level skill points.

Yellow = Likely to receive a Cooking skill point.

Green = Unlikely to receive a Cooking skill point.

Gray = No skill increase.

When you gain enough Cooking skill points, you will need to visit a Cooking trainer to advance to the next skill level!

The Expert Cooking skill is taught by cooking trainers for 95 when you reach Cooking skill 125.

Before Patch 3.1, to progress beyond a Cooking skill of 150 (Expert) required the purchase of an [Expert Cookbook] from a vendor some distance from any large cities.

If the Cooking Trainer doesn't give you cooking Expert training, you'll have to go to buy the Expert Cookbook.For the horde, it is in Desolace in Shadowprey Village (South - West). Buy it from the cooking supplies vendor, somewhere on the top of a 'tent'. For the Alliance, it's somewhere in Ashenvale, probably in the Astranaar and buy it from the Trade goods vendor.

0300Patch 3.1.0 (14-Apr-2009): Removed from game. "You no longer need to learn cooking from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing."

The Artisan Cooking skill is taught by cooking trainers for a cost depending on your reputation; approximately 2 25, depending on the trainer's area. You can learn this skill when you reach Cooking skill 200.

In Patch 2.3, a daily cooking quest was made available from The Rokk located in the Lower City. These quests require a cooking skill of at least 275 and are only available for players at or above level 70.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack offers grand master level cooking. Grand Master Cook is taught by cooking trainers in Northrend for 33 25 when you reach Cooking skill 350.

There are a bunch of new recipes for this based on Northrend meats and fishes. Alliance : Training can be purchased from Rollick MacKreel<Grand Master Cooking Trainer> on the east side of Valiance Keep, and Brom Brewbaster<Grand Master Cooking Trainer> in the Valgarde inn's kitchen. Higher-level recipes and the special cooking spices they require can be purchased only with 'Dalaran Cooking Awards', which are obtained only by completing the daily cooking quests offered in the kitchens in the inns of Dalaran. Be aware that the last 5 skill points, and particularly the very last skill point at 449 will be difficult to achieve, as the best recipes available as of 11 Dec 08 go gray at 450. The gigantic feast and the small feast are recommended as the best bet to get the last few skill points, but expect to cook a lot of feasts, unless you are very lucky.

As of Patch 3.3, Northrend recipes have been changed to offer skill-ups longer. Typical recipes will remain orange all the way up to level 450, making it much easier to cook that fish feast you've been waiting for.

0500 Mists of Pandaria Beta showed there might be a way to allow characters to quickly get to this skill level with the [Grand Master Cookbook], but it never made it to Live.

The Innkeeper at Cenarion Hold (Silithus) will give you a quest called [57] Desert Recipe. You will need to have your cooking at a minimum of 285 before you can pick up the quest. For this quest, you will first have to visit the Twilight Hammer camp to the West and retrieve a book. After returning the book, she will teach you how to make [Smoked Desert Dumplings] and will ask you to make 10 for her.

In the Burning Crusade there are also Daily Cooking Quests, which require level 275 cooking, and a level 70 character. Completing these quests can give you 6 more high level recipes, gold, and meat or fish to cook.

As of Cataclysm, daily cooking quests were added to Orgrimmar and Stormwind City to earn [Chef's Awards] towards purchasing recipes for Cooking skill 450 and up. In later patches daily quests were added to other capital cities.

Specializations require 530 cooking skill to learn. There is no level requirement to learn cooking specializations. However level 80 is required to learn Zen Master Cooking, which is needed to reach 530 skill. Level 85 is needed to learn recipes for all of the higher-tier specialization dishes.[4]

The Way of the Brew single-person dishes simply have descriptions like "known to cause massive headaches" and "may induce delusions of grandeur." The benefits of these are unknown.[4]

Feasts are an exception: Every specialization offers 2 feast dishes, each of which grants precisely the same buff - 275 Useful (class-specific) stat. This means one only needs to train one specialization to be able to cook raid feasts.[4]

There are no specialized dishes for other buff stats, however there are non-specialized dishes offering Hit and Expertise buffs. Two of these dishes are trained by the Halfhill Market trainers, while [Fish Cake] is trained by Cooking Trainers everywhere.[4]

It is advisable, since the points gained decrease as your skill level increases, to learn to make [Spiced Wolf Meat] from your trainer at skill level 10, or make [Spice Bread] if you are low on meat from the animals. You can also make [Beer Basted Boar Ribs] after getting the recipe as a quest reward in Dun Morough, or purchased from Kendor Kabonka in the Pig and Whistle Tavern in Stormwind's old town. Another option is getting the [Recipe: Kaldorei Spider Kabob] from a quest in Teldrassil.

Be sure also to head to Stormwind and ask a guard where the cooking trainer is there. There is a man in Old Town inside the Pig and Whistle Tavern named Kendor Kabonka. He sells 10-12 recipes up to level 130. Some of the recipes can be recognized as quest rewards from the surrounding zones. This is especially helpful if you are doing the cooking grind at 70. Be sure to pick up [Recipe: Redridge Goulash] and [Recipe: Murloc Fin Soup]

At level 190, head over to Desolace and find the two vendors, Vendor-Tron 1000[60, 38] and Super-Seller 680[40, 79]. They only spawn approximately once an hour for about 10 minutes in two different places, as they only appear at two stops of a caravan that moves through Desolace.

At level 225, you used to need to do the quest "Clamlette Surprise" from Dirge Quikcleave in Gadgetzan in Tanaris to become an artisan in cooking. This quest is no longer required. Just visit your trainer and learn artisan cooking.

Alterac Swiss can be bought from many locations. The closest is Galgrom in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris, the easiest is buying it with another character at Trias's Cheese shop along the entrance to Stormwind and mailing it to your cooking character.

Zesty Clam Meat can be found inside the [Big-mouth Clam]s dropped by the turtles on the eastern coast of Tanaris.

Go to Cenarion Hold in Silithus and speak to Calandrath the innkeeper for the Desert Recipe chain of quests. When you get to the third quest you'll get the [Recipe: Smoked Desert Dumplings]. Kill Dredge Crushers and Strikers for the [Sandworm Meat]. You'll need about 15. This will get you to 300.

Once arriving at Outland learn [Recipe: Ravager Dog] from Sid Limbardi at Honor Hold and learn 375 cooking from the chef in the kitchen behind him, farm [Ravager Flesh]x25 from the Ravagers in the South West on the path to Terrokar (hit the Expedition Armory and travel West until you find the Ravagers, follow the path South), you'll need Cooking 325 to proceed. You should be able to sell this food for a modest price on the AH.

This quest is no longer required for Artisan Cooking. You can still do this quest to receive the recipe Clamlette Magnifique, or you can buy the recipe from the vendor at Steamwheedle Port. This recipe goes yellow at 250.

if you have fishing: fish up Furious Crawdads in one of three lakes around Terokkar Forest and then cooking them. However, these lakes are only accessible if you have a flying mount. You also need a 330+ fishing skill to be able to fish there. The three lakes are:

This event can be used to level Cooking from 1 to 350 in about 30 minutes without traveling to other places than just to your faction's capital cities. To get started, buy the [Bountiful Cookbook] from the Pilgrim's Bounty vendor outside any capital city, and learn all the recipes you can from it. Most of the mats for each recipe can be bought from the same vendors. Cook one recipe until you've raised your Cooking level enough to learn the next recipe; repeat as needed until you can learn [Recipe: Slow-Roasted Turkey] at Cooking 280, then hunt and kill Wild Turkey around Elwynn Forest or Tirisfal Glades.